But while the Hebrews drew largely upon the wisdom (and the unwisdom) of Egypt, they ruthlessly cast out the eminently Nilotic ideas of a Soul, of a Judgment of the Dead, and of a future state of rewards and punishments—three tenets which, in modern days, form the very foundation of all faiths. ‘If a man die, shall he live (again)?’ asks Job (xiv. 14), in a chapter showing that life once lost is lost for ever.[482] And apparently from the days of Moses this was the peculiarity of ‘Semitic’ thought; it lived in the Present and had no Future, or rather it spurned the world to come. ‘Moses,’ says Professor Owen, ‘could not admit the after-life, or teach of reward and retribution in a future state, without risk of tainting his monotheism with some trace of the manifold symbolism environing the “divine son of Amen” (Osiris), who after suffering loss of the mortal life, which he had assumed for bettering his kind, became, on resigning his divinity, their judge.’ The Hebrews adopted Soul and Judgment, Heaven and Hell, many centuries after Moses from their Assyrian kinsmen,[483] who also supplied them with their present names for the twelve months and sundry astronomical notions. And their modern descendants by universally accepting a Resurrection have done that against which Moses so carefully guarded.
I need hardly say that the mythologies of Greece, Etruria, and Rome only corrupted Egyptian mysteries and metaphysics. Three instances will suffice: Charon is a degraded Horus; Minos is Mena, and Rhadamanthus contains the word Amenti, the right side (of Osiris), the west. Nor can we be surprised if Egypt is now giving rise to scientific superstitions. Every reader of ‘Pyramid Literature’ will note the mysterious influence which Kemi is exercising upon the modern mind.[484]
EGYPTIAN METALLURGY.
In the preceding chapters I have noted the development of metallurgy by the ancient Egyptians. They probably began with gold,[485] the easiest of all ores to find and to work; it was abundant in Upper Egypt, and about b.c. 1600 they found a California in ‘Kush’ (Æthiopia). They called it Tum, Khetem, and Nb, which is variously pronounced Nebu, Neb, and Nub, whence Nubia. It has two hieroglyphic determinatives
, the necklace and the washing-bowl covered with the straining-cloth. The Kemites called silver ‘white gold,’[486] showing the movement of invention; and they could draw silver wire three thousand years ago. Wilkinson (II. chap. viii.) remarks, ‘The position of the silver-mines is unknown’; but he wrote before the discovery of Midian, where surface-stones have been picked up containing three ounces per ton. As their pictures prove, they worked iron, although little has outlasted the corrosion of Time. They applied the blow-pipe to the works of the whitesmith. They were well acquainted with soldering by lead or alloys,[487] as is shown by the Shesh or Sistrum of Mr. Burton. I may here remark parenthetically that this crepitaculum used in temple-service gave rise to the Maracá or Tammaraka, the sacred rattle, a gourd full of pebbles worshipped by the Brazilian Tupis, who thus acknowledged the mysterious influence of rhythmic sounds.[488] They were skilful in the damascening[489] or inlaying of weapons, an invention claimed by those model ‘claimants,’ the Greeks. Their simple process was to cut out the ground, to hammer in gold and silver, and, finally, to file and polish the surface.[490]
EGYPTIAN WEAPONS.
The metallurgic proficiency of Old Egypt would lead to the development of arms and armour, and enable the soldier to win easier victories over the ‘vile, impure, and miserable Gentiles’—i.e. all men except themselves. The god Anhar, or Shu, is ‘Lord of the Scymitar.’ Horus, as a hawk-headed mummied deity, is seated holding two Swords. Amen-Ra, Lord of Hab, is a ‘great god Ramenma, “Lord of the Sword.”’ The ‘wearer of the Pshent or double crown’ (the Pharaoh), the image of Monthu, god of war, was ex-officio ‘His Holiness’ (high-priest) and Commander-in-Chief, who personally led his warriors to ‘wash their hearts’ (cool their valours) as the Zulus wash their spears. Like Horus, he is ‘valiant with the Sword.’[491] When going to war he was presented with the ‘Falchion of Victory,’ and thus addressed: ‘Take this weapon, and smite with it the heads of the unclean.’ In paintings and sculptures he is a large and heroic figure: he draws the bow, he spears or cuts down the foe, and he drives his war-car over the bodies of the slain. His soldiers are divided into Calasiri (Krashr[492] or bowmen) and Hermotybians, the latter unsatisfactorily derived[493] from ἡμιτύβιον, a strong linen (waist-?) cloth. The two divisions represent the second of the five castes, ranking below the priestly and above the agricultural: they held one of the three portions into which the land was divided. Recruits were taught in the military schools that originated the Pentathlon and the Pancratium, the Palæstra and the Gymnasium. They were carefully trained to gymnastics, as the monumental pictures in the Beni Hasan tombs show; they used Mogdars or Indian clubs, and they excelled in wrestling, though not in boxing. The royal statues are those of athletes, with their broad shoulders, thin flanks and well-developed muscles. The soldier practised single-stick, the right hand being apparently protected by a basket-guard, and the left forearm shielded by a splint or splints of wood, strapped on, and serving for a shield (fig. 152).
The standing army consisted of foot and horse,[494] the latter being mostly in chariots; and they were divided into corps, regiments, battalions, and companies. The men were officered by Chiliarchs (colonels), Hekatontarchs (captains), and Dekarchs (sergeants), as the Greeks called them. The ‘heavies’ were armed with a long strong spear and an immense shield provided with a sight-hole. Some carried the ‘Lisán’-club, the battle-axe, and the mace; and almost all had for side arms pole-axes,[495] Swords, falchions, and daggers. The ‘light bobs’ were chiefly archers and slingers, also weaponed with ‘Lisáns,’ axes, war-flails, and Swords. The chariot-corps or cavalry, besides bows and arrows, had clubs and short Swords for close quarters. The battle-axes show clear derivation from the stone celt, which supplied the hieroglyphs with the word Natr or Netr (Neter, &c.), meaning god, gods, or goddess (
